Directed by Gareth Edwards
Written by Max Borenstein
Godzilla takes the franchise about the giant monster back to its roots, sort of. Of course, those roots do not include the use of men in large rubber suits, but instead consist of large-scale monster v. monster battles mixed with an environmental message and a less interesting human story.
The film starts in 1999, as a series of strange earthquakes rocks and destroys a Japanese power plant. 15 years later Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor Johnson), whose parents worked at that plant, returns home from a tour of duty as an IED disposal expert. Immediately upon coming home, he is forced to fly to Japan to take care of his father Joe (Bryan Cranston) who is conducting an unauthorized investigation into the earthquake. There they witness the birth of a giant monster, MUTO, and begin to realize that maybe the only thing that can stop this monster is another monster.
First of all, let's address the eighty million pound lizard in the room. Godzilla is amazing. The creature designers managed to keep his classic look, while still updating it to look cool and intimidating for a modern day audience. The effects rendering him and the other creatures are seamless. That said the creature design aside from Godzilla is not quite at the same level, but it is still strong and creates an intimidating and dangerous presence.
A lot of people have commented on the lack of screentime of the monsters in this movie. In truth, though, that is much to the film's benefit. By building the monster fight up for the entire movie it makes it so that when it does happen the audience is truly anticipating it with open arms. And the fight does live up to that, with large-scale exciting action, and even some surprises. It follows the lead of Jaws, deciding wisely that suggesting the presence of this creature is even more powerful than showing it. As well, the scale is kept largely by showing the proceedings entirely through human eyes, and by keeping Godzilla a supporting character, letting his reputation and presence show the true scale of things.
The human portion is where the story falls short a little bit. The best part of it is easily Bryan Cranston. It should come as no surprise, but Cranston's performance as Joe Brody is fantastic, conveying power, emotion and subtlety all at once. It does help that his character is easily the most interesting character anyway, but the power of Bryan Cranston's performance cannot be underestimated. Unfortunately the main character of the film is not Joe Brody but his son, Ford. Ford Brody is a generic protagonist. Army trained, with a family in the epicenter of the danger, Brody is somebody we've seen in dozens of movies and is just not that interesting. The rest of the cast fares slightly better. Ken Watanabe and Elizabeth Olsen really do try hard to elevate flat characters and are semi-successful.
I am glad Godzilla tried to have a human story, and the story does have potential, but for the amount of screen time devoted to this particular plot thread the film simply needed a more interesting protagonist. However, the way it handles the monsters more than makes up for this, as by the end of the film the stakes are truly felt, the visuals impress and the all-out monster melee has totally enraptured anybody in the audience willing to be caught up in the proceedings. It's not the greatest monster movie of all time, but its a far cry ahead of the last American Godzilla movie, and it gives hope that some sequels may even be able to perfect the formula. B+
The film starts in 1999, as a series of strange earthquakes rocks and destroys a Japanese power plant. 15 years later Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor Johnson), whose parents worked at that plant, returns home from a tour of duty as an IED disposal expert. Immediately upon coming home, he is forced to fly to Japan to take care of his father Joe (Bryan Cranston) who is conducting an unauthorized investigation into the earthquake. There they witness the birth of a giant monster, MUTO, and begin to realize that maybe the only thing that can stop this monster is another monster.
First of all, let's address the eighty million pound lizard in the room. Godzilla is amazing. The creature designers managed to keep his classic look, while still updating it to look cool and intimidating for a modern day audience. The effects rendering him and the other creatures are seamless. That said the creature design aside from Godzilla is not quite at the same level, but it is still strong and creates an intimidating and dangerous presence.
A lot of people have commented on the lack of screentime of the monsters in this movie. In truth, though, that is much to the film's benefit. By building the monster fight up for the entire movie it makes it so that when it does happen the audience is truly anticipating it with open arms. And the fight does live up to that, with large-scale exciting action, and even some surprises. It follows the lead of Jaws, deciding wisely that suggesting the presence of this creature is even more powerful than showing it. As well, the scale is kept largely by showing the proceedings entirely through human eyes, and by keeping Godzilla a supporting character, letting his reputation and presence show the true scale of things.
The human portion is where the story falls short a little bit. The best part of it is easily Bryan Cranston. It should come as no surprise, but Cranston's performance as Joe Brody is fantastic, conveying power, emotion and subtlety all at once. It does help that his character is easily the most interesting character anyway, but the power of Bryan Cranston's performance cannot be underestimated. Unfortunately the main character of the film is not Joe Brody but his son, Ford. Ford Brody is a generic protagonist. Army trained, with a family in the epicenter of the danger, Brody is somebody we've seen in dozens of movies and is just not that interesting. The rest of the cast fares slightly better. Ken Watanabe and Elizabeth Olsen really do try hard to elevate flat characters and are semi-successful.
I am glad Godzilla tried to have a human story, and the story does have potential, but for the amount of screen time devoted to this particular plot thread the film simply needed a more interesting protagonist. However, the way it handles the monsters more than makes up for this, as by the end of the film the stakes are truly felt, the visuals impress and the all-out monster melee has totally enraptured anybody in the audience willing to be caught up in the proceedings. It's not the greatest monster movie of all time, but its a far cry ahead of the last American Godzilla movie, and it gives hope that some sequels may even be able to perfect the formula. B+
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